Electronic account users must maintain many passwords to protect their identities and access various products and services. When a user forgets a password, the user must endure a lengthy recovery process to verify his or her identity. This may involve setting up a secondary email account to which reset instructions are sent, or registering a phone number to which text message recovery instructions are sent. In addition, many services prohibit the re-use of the same password or password variation. As such, if a user is required to reset the password, he or she must create a new password that may be different than one used for other accounts.
This disclosure describes methods and systems of verifying the identity of an account user without requiring an extensive password recovery process. Specifically, this disclosure describes using an account user's digital history from different products or services to generate questions that can be used to verify a user's identity. As the questions ask for information that should be readily known by the user, this process can be quicker and more efficient than traditional email or SMS verification processes. In addition, this verification process can be used as a secondary verification process to protect accounts from being hacked.